American Voices

Jessie Montgomery Starburst for string  orchestra
Florence Price Symphony No. 1
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
with piano soloist Mike Effenberger

Full of color and contrast, our winter concert program features three modern composers whose works capture America’s many voices. Composer-violinist Jessie Montgomery’s brief one-movement Starburst for string orchestra is a multi-dimensional soundscape of instrumental colors. In her groundbreaking Symphony No. 1, Florence Price, a Black female composer who graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in 1903, blends romantic influences with sounds and rhythms derived from slave music and jazz. The program culminates with George Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue, a musical kaleidoscope of America’s vast melting pot, featuring Seacoast-based Mike Effenberger on piano.